Overview 1956 to 1960

Peak Years
(1) Data of Japanese Film Industry
   Number of theaters in 1960 was approx. 7,500 (record high)
   Number of attendance in 1958 was  approx. 1,127 million (record high)
   Number of released movies in 1960 was 547 (record high)

(2) Winners: Toei and Nikkatsu
Toei enjoyed the popularity of Jidaigeki that did not decline in this period.
Toei constantly produced more than 100 movies from 1954, so that Toei exhibitors (i.e., theaters which were directly managed by Toei or under contract with Toei) could continue "double feature" program.

Toei was most profitable company in this period, which encouraged Toei to be more aggressive. In 1960, Toei divided Toei exhibitors (theaters) in two groups, for each of which Toei started to provide a different "double feature" program. That is, Toei provided four new features every week. It was going too far. Toei would soon give up this "2 x 2 feature" distribution in 1961.

Nikkatsu suffered from severe financial condition until 1956, when a star actor, Yûjirô Ishihara, made his debut. He soon gained unprecedented popularity and made Nikkatsu the second most profitable movie company.
From 1956 to 1960, he starred in 43 movies, 17 movies among them were ranked in Japanese Top 10 Box-office movies (i.e., he starred in approx. 1/3 of the Japanese Top 10 Box-office movies in this period).
 
Daiei, Toho and Shôchiku increased the number of productions per year, following Toei and Nikkatsu. Daiei and Toho, though fell behind Toei and Nikkatsu, steadily developed in accordance with the growth of the entire market .
But Shôchiku could not. As for Shôchiku, rise in quantity resulted in fall of quality. In addition, Shôchiku could not change the style of its productions in accordance with the change of the taste of the general public (i.e., Shôchiku's productions had become out of date).

Then, "Shôchiku new wave" was born, which was a group of young and talented directors whose productions were characterized by radical politics or immorality (including sexuality). At first, the immorality appealed to the public and their productions did well in the box-office. However, when the radical politics confused audiences and exhibitors, which naturally resulted in failure in box-office, movements of "Shôchiku new wave" was terminated by force.
Shôchiku new wave was short-lived, and was active substantially in 1960 only. The young directors of the "new wave" soon left Shôchiku.

Shin-toho also distributed "double feature" programs. However, Shin-toho could produce, at most, 50 movies per year.
Shin-toho compensate the shortage by purchasing productions from independent production companies and re-releasing titles Shin-toho had produced before. The re-released titles were re-edited to a shorter version, and, here again, preserved negatives were directly edited and the fragments cut off from the negatives were abandoned.
Thus, many titles of Shin-toho lost its original form. One of them is "The life of Oharu" by Kenji Mizoguchi.